Persian MS 818 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

Persian Manuscripts

Summary of Contents: Author Muḥammad Aʻẓam Dīdahmarī (ca. 1689–1772) commenced his Vāqiʻāt-i Kashmīr (Events in Kashmir) in circa 1148 AH (1735–36 CE) and completed in Jumādà I 1160 AH (May–June 1747 CE). Divided into a muqaddimah (preface), three qism (parts) and a khātimah (conclusion), he recounts the lives of holy men, poets, and scholars chronologically during succesive reigns within that region. This volume, while unsigned and undated, would apper to date to the late 18th century, within decades of the work's completion, if not shortly after the author's death.

Author: Muḥammad Aʻẓam, active 18th century Diddimrī Kashmīrī, K̲h̲vājah Muḥammad Aʻẓam خواجه محمد عظم ددمرى كشميرى

Title: Vāqiʻāt-i Kashmīr

Title: واقعات کشمیر

Incipit: (basmala) برگ ۱پ (folio 1b): زينت صفحات دفتر ابداغ و ايجاد ترتبت طبقات منظر عالم كون و فساد(؟) بنام مالک الکلکی است

Explicit: برگ ۴۰۵ر (folio 405a): ...بر روی خانان طهور کرد هنور بیست روز از اینحالت بگذشته بود که باران غیر موسم بفور نمحضور(؟) هفت و هشت روز علی الاتصال متراکم شد و طوفان اینکنجت (؟) عشرعشران کسی را یاد یست تمام شد..

Colophon: No colophon.

Storey, p. 680, no. 873 misidentifies this volume as the work with the same title by Ḥasan b. ʻAlī Kashmīrī (see Bodleian MS. Fraser 160).

Language(s): Persian

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Textblock of thin-weight, straight and cross-grained, externally sized and polished, ivory-coloured paper probably handmade in the Indian subcontinent with ~8 laid lines per cm and no discernible chain lines.

Extent: 405(?) folios, 2 flyleaves (ff. i + 405(?) + i).

Dimensions (leaf): 206 × 132 mm.

Dimensions (written): 146 × 77 mm.

Foliation: Unfoliated. Final page number ‘810’ in Forbes' hand.

Collation

Undetermined. Catchwords throughout most of the lower-left corners of the b sides.

Condition

Text in fair but stable condition with the second half remargined, probably due to moderate water damage.

Layout

Written in 1 column with 12 lines per page. Ruled with a misṭarah hand guide.

Hand(s)

Written in clear black nasta‘līq with red subheaders.

Additions:
Inscriptions:

The right board exterior bears a paper label with thte Persian title, and a second with ‘Nº 15’ and signed underneath by ‘Col MacKay’.
The first right flyleaf a side (f. ia) signed ‘Col MacKay’, and pencilled numbers ‘876’ and possibly a date ‘19/6/37 (19 June 1837).’
The first right flyleaf b side (f. ib) ‘D. F> 220’ and ‘Tarikh ^{or History of} Muahmmad Shah- Persian.’ in the hand of .

Bookplates: The left pastedown: ‘Bibliotheca Lindesiana’ bookplate with pencilled shelfmark ‘1/J’, and an earlier Lindesiana label ‘Persian MSS Nº. 24’, with the number crossed out and ‘818’ written aside.

Binding

Probably bound in the Indian subcontinent.

Sewn at two stations, unsupported. Edges trimmed, and chevron endbands of pale pink and natural colour twined at head and tail. Covered in full red-brown goatskin leather over pastebaords. The interior lined with doublures of the same leather, with their excess widths adhered to the first and last flyleaves as hinges connecting the cover to the textblock, with vertical strips of paper applied over tip to disguise the joins.

Small typed naskh spine label bears the title.

212 × 142 × 54 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition with extensive abrasion to the exterior, head and tail caps torn, and protruding textblock.

History

Origin: Probably completed in the Indian subcontinent; undated but probably late 18th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

Subsequently acqurired by one ‘Col MacKay’ who signed the paper label on the right board exterior and the right flyleaf a side. He may possibly be James MacKay (d. 1831) who served in the British East Indian Company and who previously owned another manuscript now held in the Cambridge University Library (Add. 796).

While the circumstances under which this volume arrived in Britain remain unclear, orientalist Duncan Forbes (1798–1868) later obtained it from an unidentified source. Ultimately appointed King's College Professor of Oriental Languages, Forbes described this volume in his 1866 catalogue, valued at £1 11s 6d (also inscribed on the first right flyleaf b side (f. ib)), before he sold his manuscript collection to his publisher W. H. Allen & Co. in exchange for an annuity.

Subsequently sold by W. H. Allen & Co. to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in 1866 for his Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on an index created by Reza Navabpour circa 1993, derived from a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s, concisely published as Bibliotheca Lindesiana, Hand-list of Oriental Manuscripts: Arabic, Persian, Turkish, 1898.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2024 with reference to the manuscript in hand, and in consultation with Prof. Satoshi Ogura, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, regarding identification of the volume and its sources..

Availability

To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.

Bibliography

H. Ethé, Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the India Office, Vol. I (London: Printed for the India Office by H. Hart, 1903), cols. cols. 204–205, no. 513 [British Library IO Islamic 1429].

D. Forbes, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Chiefly Persian, Collected Within the Last Five and Thirty years (London: W. H. Allen., 1866), p. 72, no. 220.

V. Ivanov, Concise Descriptive Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the Curzon Collection (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1926), p. 20, no. 41 [Asiatic Society of Bengal Curzon II 364].

C. Rieu, Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum, Vol. I (London: British Museum, 1879), pp. 300–301 [British Library Add. 26282, &c.].

E. Sachau and H. Ethé, Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstani, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), cols. 171–172, no. 319 [Bodleian MS Elliott 359 (no. 1)].

C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol. 1 Pt. 2 Fasc. 3 (London: Luzac & Co., 1953), p. 683, no. 880.

Funding of Cataloguing

Iran Heritage Foundation

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Persian Heritage Foundation

Subjects

Jammu and Kashmir (India)--History

Comments

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